


A Very Distinctive Interlude

by AlannaofRoses



Series: The Pack Long Con [5]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s02e15 The Maltese Falcon Job, M/M, Shifter Eliot, Shifter Quinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24017086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlannaofRoses/pseuds/AlannaofRoses
Summary: When Nate asks Eliot to do the unthinkable, the Shifter turns to his lover to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart. With his new pack divided and broken, there is only one person Eliot trusts to hold him together.
Relationships: Mr. Quinn/Eliot Spencer (Leverage)
Series: The Pack Long Con [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710754
Comments: 9
Kudos: 76





	A Very Distinctive Interlude

Eliot is reeling.

Sophie conning the team had hurt, sure. He’d been furious and wounded that she would try to play them.

It didn’t even compare to this.

Nate had…

Nate had lied. Had told them, point blank, that everything was going to plan. Had handcuffed Eliot as surely as if he had used actual steel.

Eliot couldn’t protect his team if he didn’t know there was danger coming.

Nate had kept him blinded until the minute they stood on the deck of that ship, surrounded by law enforcement, and Nate had cuffed himself to the rail and offered himself as bait.

“I can take them.” Eliot had said, sure and steady. And he could have. It would mean shifting, would mean letting go of the secrecy he had kept himself wrapped in for so long. It would mean attracting the wrong kind of attention, to him and to others.

He would have done it.

For Leverage.

For Nate.

Instead, Nate had looked him in the eye and told him to leave. To take the team and leave Nate behind, as calmly as if he wasn’t asking Eliot to rip his heart out by the roots.

A Shifter didn’t just leave his pack behind.

But Nate was clever. He knew Eliot would Shift, would kill, would die to protect him.

He also knew Eliot would never risk Parker. Hardison. Sophie.

He made Eliot choose.

He forced Eliot to leave him behind, as if Eliot couldn’t smell the blood, the tang of gunpowder on Nate’s hand where he held his side. As if leaving behind a wounded pack member wouldn’t shred what was left of Eliot’s bloody, tattered soul.

But this was his job. To do the things others couldn’t. To protect his team.

So he touched Hardison, Parker, sent them hurrying to the helicopter. He waited, keeping himself between Sophie and those guns as she said her own farewell to Nate.

And when she was in front of him, following the others to the chopper, Eliot glanced back one more time and looked Nate in the face.

And then he left him behind.

Sophie was crying and pretending she wasn’t, so Eliot picked her up and lifted her into the chopper, stepping in after her and nodding at the pilot.

He nudged Parker over in the middle seat, letting both girls press their faces into his shoulders as they flew away so they wouldn’t see where Nate had slumped over, Sterling gesturing frantically as he hurried to the bleeding mastermind.

Hardison was sitting across from them, his face as stricken as Eliot felt.

Eliot reached out a foot, nudged the hacker’s knee. Hardison looked up, biting his lip. Parker made a soft sound and moved into Eliot’s lap, which was not at all within the rules, of course, but then the rules didn’t really apply to them anyway. Eliot simply wrapped his arm around her waist. Hardison slipped into her abandoned seat, his side pressed up against Eliot in a way that would have earned him a solid punch two years ago, but now just felt… right.

Eliot held his team together until the chopper landed, taking the hit for them until they could once again shoulder the load.

It was Sophie who recovered first, wiped her eyes and laid out the plan.

They would lay low for a month, figure out what was going to happen to Nate and whether Sterling would keep his bargain. Parker and Hardison went off together, and it helped, a bit, to know that they wouldn’t be alone. Sophie just smiled sadly at Eliot and left.

He was alone.

He was alone again, and he had left Nate behind.

He called Quinn.

“Eliot.” There was a note of fear in the other hitter’s voice. This line was for emergencies only, and they had been very careful about that. Of course, this was an emergency, though not the one Quinn was afraid of.

“I’m uninjured, Quinn. I just… something’s happened. I need…” His voice broke. “I need to see you. Please.”

Quinn blew out a breath, and then rattled off an address.

Eliot was on a plane in less than an hour.

Quinn paced the floor of one of his hideouts. It was one of the few that was absolutely secret, a last resort. No tech of any kind, no official listing, no way to trace it to him and very hard to find at all.

Unless you were another Shifter.

Eliot arrived faster than Quinn had expected, though not fast enough for his heart, which had been beating out of his chest since he had heard Eliot’s voice crack over the phone. He hadn’t seen Eliot since the aftermath of the airport fight. They had gotten a rare moment of peace together, and Eliot had told him about the new crew he was running with.

The team.

It had been a long time since their pack had been bigger than two, but even a year ago, Quinn had been able to tell that it had grown.

It was nothing compared to the whiff of four distinct and yet complimentary scents he caught pouring off of Eliot as his lover walked heavily through the door.

“Eliot.” He breathed. His lover looked terrible. Eliot had obviously been in a fight recently, bruises and blood on his face and hands. There was a red line around his wrists that told Quinn he had been bound at some point. But the damage was superficial, easily healed. It was the jagged shards of pain in Eliot’s eyes that worried Quinn.

He went to his lover, taking advantage of his slightly taller form to wrap his arms around Eliot’s neck, pulling the other man into his chest with a solid grip.

Eliot melted against him, strong arms circling Quinn’s waist and holding on for dear life.

Quinn just held him for a long time. Eliot wasn’t crying, not one for displays of emotion, but Quinn could feel him shaking, a combination of leftover stimulus from the fight and a reaction to whatever had ripped a hole in Eliot’s heart.

It took Quinn a moment to summon it, always more difficult with a human throat, but before long he was purring comfortingly against Eliot’s hair, letting the gentle vibrations soothe his lover’s rioting emotions.

He was always grateful to be a cheetah at times like these, one of the few large cats who could purr. Quinn had quickly discovered its lulling properties on Eliot, who was often plagued by nightmares and other demons of his past. It was one of the only sure-fire ways to get Eliot to relax.

It was working its magic even now, Eliot trembling less and less as the minutes ticked away, the painfully tense muscles slowly loosening.

Finally, Eliot sighed and stepped back, Quinn reluctantly letting him go. Still needing some sort of connection, he reached for Eliot’s hand and was gratified when the other Shifter allowed him to tangle their fingers.

He tugged Eliot towards the kitchen, gently nudging his lover into a chair and kneeling before him, starting his examination of Eliot’s injuries with the hand he still held. His assessment was quick but thorough, his eyes and fingers sure of their familiar paths. He found no major injuries, and little beyond the blood and bruises he had already marked.

He pressed a kiss to the angry red lines encircling Eliot’s wrists, recognizing the signs of forcefully broken zip ties.

Eliot merely watched him through eyes hooded with exhaustion, his body finally crashing as he registered that he was safe and secure. Quinn knew he would want to Shift soon, to accelerate his healing and get some peace from his riotous thoughts.

That was a very nice thing about the Shift- none of your human problems were so big when your brain had more animal concerns.

However, Quinn knew Eliot hated to eat in his form, so he reluctantly let go of Eliot’s hand and moved to the pantry he kept lightly stocked. Eliot had taught him at least the basics of good cooking, but neither of them had the time or energy to wait for a decent meal. Quinn dumped a can of chili into a pot and set it to heat on the stove.

The first aid kit was on the counter nearby, and Quinn snagged it, pulling out some alcohol wipes and disinfectant spray. He tended to Eliot’s knuckles carefully, trying not to freak out at the fact that Eliot hadn’t said a word since he’d arrived. He knew, mentally, that his lover merely needed time to process whatever had sent him running to Quinn today.

Quinn could wait.

He finished with Eliot’s hands just as the chili started to bubble, and both men ate in continued silence.

As Quinn had suspected, Eliot cleaned his bowl and almost immediately stalked into the living room, Shifting smoothly into a huge lion that slumped onto the rug.

Quinn put both bowls into the sink, spraying enough water into them that the chili wouldn’t be impossible to get out later, and then joined his lover. His muscles burned pleasantly as he Shifted himself, and a lithe cheetah laid its head on Eliot’s shoulder moments later.

Tomorrow, Eliot would tell Quinn what haunted him. Tomorrow, he would learn what Eliot had been doing since the airport, about Leverage and the team that had become Eliot’s pack. Tomorrow Quinn would continue to offer comfort as Eliot told him about the destruction of that pack, about the wound that Quinn had already sensed.

For tonight, they had each other.

It had always been enough.


End file.
